Beauty

Beauty

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Beauty

62 comments

This is so lovely.
I love that you can sort of see her smile.
In many cultures, including my own, traditionally a bride is not supposed to smile on her wedding day, because she should look demure. Forget that noise, I smiled all day long, and I’m glad this bride is as well. :)

I saw a marriage too at Meiji!!! It was one of the most amazing moments of my life, a dream coming true! I saw the whole ceremonial walk outside the temple and it was breathtaking… and made a video+around 4567 photos of it!

Weddings at Meiji jingu are quite common, if you hang around a while you can se two-three on a Sunday or Saturday :) Also, they always seem comfortable with people taking pictures and the whole wedding procession is sooo beautiful! It’s nice to stay for a while and look at the grooms and brides as well as the guests in gorgeous kimonos and rest your feet at the same time :)

First of all, it is a wig, known as takashimada katsura, made out of human hair, that is why it looks so perfect. How do I know? I am one of the few female westerners who got married at Meiji Shrine in Harajuku. It is extremely heavy and huge in size (they are made to fit average Japanese women head, which is about 2-3 sizes bigger than my head, that’s what my Japanese lady-in-waiting told me, but when I tried all the wigs during the wig and kimono fitting, and I tried 5 or 6 wigs, all of them were just huge on my head, not even the smallest wig they had fitted, so I had to wear some cotton underneath it, and still felt wobbly and seemed as if I had no forehead… not to mention that you have to bow a lot during the ceremony, and I had to be extremely careful as I felt I could drop it as it was loose… and the wedding kimono(uchikake) had 4 layers, plus the fake layers, and was heavy as well, i guess it weighed 10 kilos. I also wore a lighter version( not as pale white as the lady in the picture) of kabuki-like white make-up on my face, back, neck… It takes 2 hours and a half to get ready, but the real problem is going to the toilet (LOL). Two ladies-in waiting had to hold my kimono while in the toilet. Second, there is nothing phalic about its shape and it has a name: it is called tsuno kakushi, or hiding horns, and it is hard to explain its roots, apparently people started wearing the tsuno kakushi during Edo period, and I heard 2 explanations (sorry if I am wrong: the first one is that the oni-yome or the bride-devil wanted to hide her horns (or sins) under her hair so no one would realize she was a devil… the second explanation it is related to the Noh theather, apparently a woman who is jealous or grumpy would grow horns, and she would look like a devil (oni) and they would use horns as a way to hide her jealous personality and or to help her to avoid being jealous or looking grumpy.
Anyway, these wigs are heavily decorated with kazari and kanzashi (flowers, combs, pins, mine had kanzashi with cranes, just like my white silk kimono) and they used to be all black hair color, but recently one might find takashimada katsura wigs with lighter shades of hair color. They do look perfect and it does not take a lot of time to wear them, if they fit properly on your head…Also, I worn a white cover over the wig, called wata boushi, which was only worn at Meiji Shrine ceremonies in the past, but nowadays can be worn in wedding ceremonies held in other shinto shrines as well.